Dubai assassins used names of UK olim

6 Brits named by Dubai as Hamas man's killers have same names as immigrants.

mabhouh assassins 311.
(photo credit:AP)

Three olim expressed astonishment on Tuesday after discovering their
names on a list of suspected hit squad members who killed Hamas
operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room last month.

Of the 11 people named by Dubai police as being members of the alleged
assassination team, six have the same names as British-Israeli citizens
living in Israel, and one is a German-Israeli woman, Channel 10 said.

Analysts have argued that intelligence agents traveling with false
documents are more likely to get past border controls if they use the
names of “real” people.

Paul Keeley, a British oleh who lives at Kibbutz Nahsholim, told
Channel 2 that he had been inundated with calls from British media
outlets since the list of names was publicized.

“I’m in shock and I don’t even understand what I’m seeing,” he said.
Referring to the photograph of alleged hit-squad member “Paul Keeley”
disseminated by Dubai police along with pictures of other alleged
assassins, the Nahsholim resident added, “It doesn’t even look like
me.”

Keeley moved to Israel 15 years ago, and said his passport had not been lost or stolen.

“I am just a father, a husband, and a kibbutz resident,” he said.

Another British oleh whose name appears on the list, Steven Daniel
Hodes, said, “I am in complete shock and I don’t understand what is
going on. I don’t know how they got to me. That’s not my picture, of
course. I haven’t left the country in two years, and I certainly have
not been in Dubai. I don’t know who is behind this. I’m scared.”

Michael Lawrence Barney, a third oleh who found his name on the list,
told Channel 10 on Tuesday, “This is a mistake or a case of identity
theft, but it isn’t me. That’s for sure.”

Hamas has blamed Israel’s Mossad for the assassination and vowed
revenge. Dubai police have said they do not rule out Mossad
involvement, but have yet to formally accuse the organization of the
killing.

At least three additional names on the hit squad list – Jonathan
Graham, James Clarke and Michael Bodenheimer – bear similarities to the
names of Israeli citizens, though Graham and Clarke have told Ynet that
they have different middle names.

Bodenheimer’s daughter said her father is an Orthodox man living in
Bnei Brak, and that he had immigrated to Israel from the US 30 years
ago.

The London Times reported on
Tuesday that British authorities had launched an investigation to
determine “how six British nationals apparently had their identities
stolen by suspected Mossad agents to cover their tracks on a mission to
assassinate a top Hamas leader in Dubai.”

The newspaper said that Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office
“confirmed that the identities in the British passports used by six
members of the 11-strong hit squad were those of real British passport
holders,” adding that the passports used by the hit squad were forged.

One possibility being investigated is that “British passport details
were copied from the originals by immigration staff while the holders
were traveling,” according to the Times.

A number of Mossad operations, including those involving the use of
foreign passports, have caused diplomatic strains with Western
countries in the recent past.

In 1997, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was targeted for assassination by
two Mossad agents in Jordan. The agents entered Jordan with forged
Canadian passports and injected Mashaal with poison. They were arrested
by Jordanian security forces soon after the attack. Jordan’s King
Hussein demanded that Israel save Mashaal by providing him with the
poison’s antidote, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu acquiesced.

Israel was also forced to release Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin in exchange
for Jordan’s release of the two agents. The episode strained diplomatic
relations with Jordan and Canada.

In 1998, five Mossad agents were apprehended in Switzerland attempting
to bug the phone of Abdallah el-Zein, a Swiss-Lebanese man suspected of
being part of a Hizbullah network that was plotting terrorist attacks
against Israel. One agent, code-named Isaac Bental, was caught in
possession of surveillance equipment, and was charged in a Swiss court.
He was released after Israel paid a $2 million bail.

In 2004, two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months in 2004
in New Zealand after being convicted of attempting to fraudulently
receive a New Zealand passport. One of the men entered New Zealand on a
Canadian passport, drawing criticisms from the Canadian government. New
Zealand strongly condemned the incident.